The Holy Spirit and Orthodoxy — a couple of quotes

Do not say, It is impossible to receive the Holy Spirit; Do not say, It is possible to be saved without Him. Do not say that one can possess Him without knowing it. Do not say, God does not appear to us. Do not say, People do not see the divine light, Or else, It is impossible in these present times. This is a thing never impossible, my friends, But on the contrary altogether possible for those who wish. — Saint Symeon the New Theologian

All the charismata available to Christians in the apostolic age, Symeon is passionately convinced, are equally available to Christians in our own day. To suggest otherwise is for Symeon the worst of all possible heresies, implying as it does that God has somehow deserted the Church. If the Gifts of the Spirit are not as evident in the Christian community of our own time as they are in the Book of Acts, there can be only one reason for this: the weakness of our faith. — Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

“Praying in spirit and truth is very important in this Gospel, because it shows us that the man’s prayer does no longer depend on the place where it is said, but on the mood in which it is said. Praying in spirit and truth means a communion with God made through the prayer enlightened by the Holy Spirit and through the confession of the truth of the right faith. Praying in spirit and truth means that we pray in the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is why in the Orthodox Church the first prayers begin with Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth who are everywhere and accomplish everything … Thus, the Spirit relates the creature to the Creator. We pray in the Holy Spirit because He opens the creatures to God the Creator to receive the saving grace and answer the love of God. This is why Saint Paul the Apostle says: ‘We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans, because you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” — His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church

“It is necessary that the Holy Spirit enter our heart. Everything good that we do, that we do for Christ, is given to us by the Holy Spirit, but prayer most of all, which is always available to us.” — Saint Seraphim of Sarov

“When the Holy Spirit visits, any labor becomes easy, unceasing prayer flows from the heart, and the eyes continuously shed tears. This may be accompanied by spiritual enlightenment and pure, sober reasoning; for it is then that the Holy Spirit acts within a man.” -Fr. Sergius Chetverikov

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Nope, this is actually mainstream in Orthodoxy. The following quote comes from the Orthodox wiki:

In practice, the Hesychastic prayer bears some superficial resemblance to mystical prayer or meditation in Eastern religions (e.g., Buddhism and Hinduism, especially Yoga), although this similarity is often overly emphasized in popular accounts. For example, it may involve specific body postures and be accompanied by very deliberate breathing patterns. It involves acquiring an inner stillness, ignoring the physical senses. The hesychasts interpreted Christ’s injunction in the Gospel of Matthew to “go into your closet to pray” to mean that they should ignore sensory input and withdraw inwards to pray. It often includes many repetitions of the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me[, a sinner].”. While some might compare it with a mantra, to use the Jesus Prayer in such a fashion is to violate its purpose. One is never to treat it as a string of syllables for which the “surface” meaning is secondary. Likewise, hollow repetition is considered to be worthless (or even spiritually damaging) in the hesychast tradition. Saint Theophan the Recluse once related that body postures and breathing techniques were virtually forbidden in his youth, since, instead of gaining the Spirit of God, people succeeded only “in ruining their lungs.